Platforms have seen a mix of campaigns raise close to 10 cr in funding over the past one yearShashwati Shankar | ET Bureau | September 20, 2016, 07:32 IST

Crowdfundingstartups including Impact Guru, Ketto and Wishberry are seeing an increase in funds for women security and empowerment-oriented projects on their platforms. The platforms are donation based and do not attract the recently announced Sebi norms on equity crowdfunding.

"Women-oriented empowerment campaigns are a strong focus area and category for us. Earlier this year, we saw a wearable security product raise over 5 lakh to other campaigns like building toilets for women in villages," said Varun Sheth, cofounder, Ketto.

Crowdfunding platforms have seen a mix of women security products and empowerment-oriented campaigns raise close to Rs 10 crore in funding over the past one year.

One such product is Safer, a wearable smart jewellery product that sends an alert to one's friends or family the moment the individual wearing it presses the pendant. The pendant is also connected to an app called Safer Walk, which includes hi-tech security features, enabling the family member or the friend to get access to the exact location of the individual wearing the pendant.

Safer raised close to 6 lakh through Ketto. "We have managed to raise over 6 crore through women empowerment-oriented campaigns," said Sheth.

Recently, Impact Guru partnered with international organisations including UN Women Singapore Committee, Mastercard and Bain & Company to launch Project Inspire. The project is a joint initiative asking the youth in Asia and the Pacific region to showcase ideas that can empower women and young girls through innovative security measures.

"We received over 300 applications from across the world. Twenty of them have been shortlisted for the semi-finals, of which six are from India. The entire semi-final round is a crowdfunding round, where the teams have to raise funds online. We have seen products like smartphone apps for security to smart jewellery sending alerts to defence training programmes to sexual violence-oriented solutions," said Piyush Jain, founder, Impact Guru.

One of the organisations from India is CareNx Innovations. The company leverages smartphone technology to provide effective antenatal care and healthcare access to pregnant women in villages during the pregnancy period. Through the app, women can access medication, doctor and counsellor services, and can listen to their babies' heartbeats and predict high-risk conditions.

"We view digital platforms as a way to encourage social innovation, and crowdfunding draws potential supporters with a call to action that involves them in the success of the projects," said Trina Liang-Lin, president, UN Women Singapore Committee.

The top 10 finalists for Project Inspire will receive an all expense paid trip to Singapore and pitch their ideas to win the $25,000 prize money. Until now, Impact Guru has raised over 1 crore for women empowerment and security-oriented projects.

Similarly, Wishberry has raised over 16 lakh for a project called Missing, which addresses the issue of human trafficking and prostitution through large-scale art installations and an interactive augmented reality app.

Other crowdfunding players like Catapooolt are also slowly seeing traction from women oriented security and empowerment projects. "There are several uses for women security centric campaigns that either use smartphone-oriented solutions to deal with issues or organise training groups to deal with aggressors, especially in India. Funds for such campaigns are increasingly gaining popularity," said Jain.